Fiat is touting the 500x’s Italian styling as a standout feature that will help the car win sales in the booming but hotly contested subcompact crossover segment.
The 500X’s styling reflects the cute iconic design of the 500 minicar from the 1960s and “when you buy a 500, you buy a little piece of Italian lifestyle”, said Olivier Francois, Fiat brand global boss, at the car’s unveiling at the Paris auto show.
PSA/Peugeot-Citroen is talking to potential customers for an anticipated surplus of engines as BMW and Ford stop using engines jointly developed with the French carmaker.
By Jeff Schaeffer and Angela Charlton
The European car market is seeing a fragile recovery after six years of decline, but CEOs in Paris are scaling back hopes that Russia could help drive the rebound. The sanctions imposed on the country for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis have dented confidence.
Tesla shares raced higher Thursday after founder Elon Musk tantalized fans via Twitter with a hint the electric carmaker will unveil a new model next week.
Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn (above) warned European regulators that it would be “fatal” to overburden the auto industry with a fresh round of more stringent emission targets before a market can even develop for electric cars, plug-in hybrids and other fuel-efficient models powered by alternative powertrains.While automakers try to conserve resources themselves when building cars in order to save costs, they traditionally drag their feet when it comes to selling cars equipped with expensive green technology when customers prove unwilling to pay for it.
